Lentil & Cashew Nut Roast

Ingredients:

200g red lentils,
450ml vegetable stock,
1 bay leaf,
100g unsalted cashew nuts,
2 onions, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
1 carrot, grated
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp lemon juice,
75g grated cheese,
100g breadcrumbs,
3 tbsps parsley,
1 egg

Method:

1. Add lentils, stock & bay leaf to a pan & bring to the boil. Cover & allow to simmer for 10-15 mins until the stock has been absorbed.
2. Toast cashew nuts in a dry frying pan for a few minutes & chop roughly.
3. Preheat oven to 190C.
4. Add some oil to frying pan & fry onions for a few minutes before adding, pepper, carrot, garlic and frying until soft.
5. Mix together in a large bowl the cooked lentils, fried vegetables & all the other ingredients.
6. Put into a greased loaf tin & cover with foil.
7. Bake for 30 minutes, remove foil & bake for a further 30 minutes.
8. Allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing.

Serve with gravy, vegetables, potatoes as an alternative to meat for a Sunday roast.

Kids Fruit Pizzas

Ingredients:

Base: 4 Tortilla wraps

Sauce: 125ml yoghurt (I used dairy-free coconut based yoghurt),
1 tsp runny honey,
half teaspoon vanilla extract,
3/4 teaspoon orange juice

Fruit: Any fruit, but berries, chopped apple, tinned pineapple chunks, tinned mandarin slices all work well

Method:

1. Using a round biscuit cutter, cut the tortilla wraps.
2. Mix together in a bowl the sauce ingredients.
3. Spread the sauce on the tortilla rounds.
4. Top with the prepared fruit.

Naan Bread

Ingredients:

200g Greek yoghurt
1/2 tsp salt
200ml water
500g self-raising flour
olive oil for brushing

Method:

1. Put yoghurt & salt in a bowl, add the water & mix well.
2. Add the flour and mix til forms a dough, then knead it to make it smooth.
3. Cut the dough into 8-10 pieces.
4. Roll out the dough until it is about 0.5cm thick into a round or oval shape.
5. Heat frying pan over a medium heat.
6. Brush one side with oil & place that side face down in the pan.
7. Brush the other side of the naan with oil.
8. Cook for 1-2 mins either side until golden brown, puffed up & cooked through.

Enjoy with a tasty curry or kebab

Slow Cooked Lentil Ragu

Ingredients:

2 onions

2 carrots

3 celery stick

2 red peppers

200g dried red lentils

200g dried green lentils

3 tins chopped tomatoes

100g tomato puree

700ml vegetable stock (made with 2 OXO cubes)

2 tbsp vegetarian Worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp mixed herbs

Method:

1. Chop onions, carrots & celery into chunks.
2. Add all the ingredients to the slow cooker and stir together.
3. Cook on low for 5-7 hours until the lentils are cooks and the sauce is thick.

Occasionally extra liquid may need to be added before the end of the cooking time. If there is too much liquid, you can leave the lid off for the last hour to allow some excess water to boil off.

Ideal to serve with rice or pasta or jacket potatoes. Great sauce for a lasagne too.

Homemade Baked Beans

Ingredients:

4x 400g tins of haricot beans (can also be made with any other types of tinned beans)
4 bay leaves
2 onions, finely sliced
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 carrots, grated
300ml vegetable stock (made mine with 1 veg OXO cube)
2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp paprika
pinch of ground cloves
black pepper
1 tsp black treacle

Method:

1. Put all the ingredients into the slow cooker.
2. Mix together well & cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours.

NB If you make a huge batch you can freeze in portions.

This recipe is soooo simple but yet as delicious if not more delicious than tinned baked beans.

Vegan Chocolate Orange Brownie

Ingredients:

250g plain flour

350g demerara sugar

65g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

250ml water

250ml vegetable oil

12 drops of orange essential oil

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. In a bowl mix together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder & salt.
3. Pour in water, vegetable oil & orange essential oil & mix well.
4. Spread into a baking tin.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
6. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Vegan Mint Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients:

250g plain flour

350g demerara sugar

65g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

250ml water

250ml vegetable oil

6 drops of peppermint essential oil

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. In a bowl mix together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder & salt.
3. Pour in water, vegetable oil & peppermint essential oil & mix well.
4. Spread into a baking tin.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
6. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Journey to Vegetarianism leading to Veganism

In Spring 2016, my husband was talking to his brother who was on a journey to veganism and he shared a documentary with my husband called Cowspiracy.

Here's the link to the short 15 minute version & also the full documentary:
Cowspiracy 15 minute version
Cowspiracy Full Documentary

It talks about the impact on the environment by eating meat and dairy, it really struck us that we needed to change our diets and our families diet to do something to help the impact on our planet. Since watching the documentary we have been trying to reduce our impact on the earth through our diet and also the way which we shop.

Eating

We are heading towards veganism - we started this journey by researching and then became completely vegetarian in summer 2016. We have noticed some wonderful health benefits to vegetarianism and actually surprisingly have not missed eating meat at all. Once, we were comfortable with vegetarianism we have started to try to reduce the amount of dairy products we consume, mainly cutting out one by one. We're not quite completely vegan yet, but we're making good headway to being completely dairy free in our house.

Shopping

We try to buy things locally, so we buy fruit and vegetables from a local farm shop who deliver a mixed fruit and vegetable box fortnightly directly to our door.

We buy as much as we can of our store cupboard shopping in bulk from a local ethical & co-operative wholesalers.

We do still buy some things from supermarkets but try not to shop at the big multinational companies ie Asda, Tesco, etc. Living in Bradford we get shopping from Morrisons as they're based in our city, so it promotes local jobs & employment, but the amount we spend in Morrisons has reduced significantly from a few years ago.

Coming Soon . . . Essencia by Ruth

Essencia is Portuguese for essence & means:

• Nature
• Soul
• Being
• Lifeblood

For some time, I've been on a journey to chemical-free living, ethical shopping and how can we help our environment through what we eat. I really feel I want to share this journey with you through my new venture . . . . ESSENCIA by Ruth!

The different aspects to this journey are:

• learning about pure essential oils & their natural benefits to our bodies
• being aware of what we eat & what we choose to eat especially in relation to vegetarianism and veganism
• chemical-free living in keeping us and our houses clean

I will be sharing about my journey by:

• running classes online & in person
• running make & take parties
• selling products which are ethical & benefit the environment
• sharing recipes